The known retaining clips are used in particular to fasten brake lines and cables in motor vehicles in a simple and inexpensive manner. By means of blocking fingers an unintentional detachment of the articles as a result of shaking or vibrations is prevented. The blocking fingers allow only a movement of the article in the assembly direction, while blocking a movement in the opposite direction. They offer only a slight resistance when the article is introduced in the assembly direction, and represent a considerable obstacle when the article is to be removed counter to assembly direction. Because the technology has been known for years, such clips are comparatively inexpensive to manufacture.
Known retaining clips however have the following drawbacks:
On the one hand, opposing blocking fingers have to be arranged a specific minimum distance apart from one another in order to allow the article to be fixed to pass through with sufficient ease. In the case of multiple receivers, said minimum distances add up and result in the retaining clip taking up a relatively large amount of space.
On the other hand, the retaining clip widens when an article is to be introduced. As the article is introduced, the latching fingers are compressed, causing spreading of the retaining clip. This is very disadvantageous especially when a plurality of articles are to be introduced simultaneously, particularly in one working step, into the retaining clip because the extra space needed adds up. Because of the deformation of the retaining clip a simultaneous introduction of a plurality of articles is difficult or impossible. The spreading is particularly pronounced when the retaining clip is of a compact design.
With known retaining clip geometries the only choice available was between two disadvantageous variants. Either the retaining clip had large distances between the blocking fingers, in which case the spreading was admittedly slight but the retaining clip was very large. Or the retaining clip was provided with minimal distances between the blocking fingers, in which case the retaining clip admittedly took up little room but the spreading during introduction of the articles was so great that a simultaneous introduction of a plurality of articles was difficult or impossible.
The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a particularly compact retaining clip, which during the simultaneous insertion of a plurality of articles takes up only a small amount of extra space and/or presents only slight spreading.